Our Savoir faire

5 key ingredients...

1. Hand picked fruit...and not just any old fruit. 

We select the very best fruit to perfectly capture freshness, crisp acidity and weight. Our focus during harvest is to pick at the very optimum time where the fruit has that perfect balance of acidity and weight.

All fruit is picked by hand and pressed within 48 hours.

2. Cold settling.

A key moment for the apple must (recently pressed apple juice before it ferments) is immediately after pressing when it is 

We allow our apple must to settle in a cool tank for 24 hours to help create a clear and clean juice reducing the chance of issues later.

3. Temperature controlled primary fermentation.

To capture and maintain the freshness and finesse, the primary fermentation has to be done in a controlled environment. We work to maintain a constant 15C during fermentation.

4. Barrel fermentation and ageing on lees.

Barrels mean a lot to us! We hand select all our barrels from the very finest vignerons in Champagne. They have seen at least 2 harvests in Champagne before they come to Naughton Cider. We feel this creates a perfect environment for the humble apple. A beautiful marriage of oak and crisp fruit. On top of this we vinify each and every apple variety individually. We find this allows us to better place each fruit and gives us the perfect paintboard to work from.

5. Controlled malolactic fermentation.

One of the benefits of being relatively far North is the brightness of the fruit. Acidity is our friend but only to a limit! Luckily apples are full of Malic acid and Malic acid happily converts to lactic acid in the right environment. We actively promote this but gently warming the barrels up spring. This helps to soften the acidity and create a creamy, buttery and velvety texture.